Product category:
CNC lathes
News Release from: Colchester-Harrison | Subject: Tornado 210 CNC lathe
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 05 February 2002
Turning operations on oil industry parts
reduced
A Colchester Tornado 210 CNC lathe, with integral MBF 1000 bar feed, has helped a subcontractor to drastically increase its production efficiency on a range of extruded aluminium bar components.
A Colchester Tornado 210 CNC lathe, with integral MBF 1000 bar feed, which was sold to Cambridgeshire based Neisen by Colchester Lathe's southern distributor RK International of Erith in Kent, has helped the precision machining and fabrication sub-contractor, to drastically increase its production efficiency on a range of fluted extruded aluminium bar components for the oil industry As a result of detailed application engineering by RK International on the oil industry parts, the number of operations has been cut from four to two, cycle time halved and scrap virtually eliminated
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 5 Jul 2001 at 8.00am (UK)
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The company was founded by directors Brian Austin and Norman Griffin in 1976 and now operates from a factory at Somersham in the heart of rural Cambridgeshire.
It features on the approved-supplier list of many ISO 9000 accredited companies in the automotive, motor racing, hydraulic, optical and telecommunications industries, mostly located within a 50 mile radius of the Somersham factory.
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The company has maintained a strong presence with its customer base by continually investing in new machinery.
Investment has averaged one new machine tool a year for the past 10 years and the Colchester lathe and bar feed package is the latest in that programme.
Purchased to expand turning capacity up to 65mm diameter, for which the MBF 1000 short bar feed can hold up to eight bars, the specification of the Tornado met Neisen's needs almost exactly in terms of capacity, power-to-size ratio and its compact footprint.
Because space is at a premium at the Somersham factory size was important and the fact that Neisen had previous successful dealings with 600 Group with the purchase of two Fanuc Robodrills from the 600 Centre this helped influence the decision.
However, "The real clincher", insists Norman Griffin, "was the MBF 1000 bar feed.
It is very efficient and is programmed and controlled from the lathe's Fanuc control.
This makes it very quick and easy to set up using the screen at the machine." Setting the bar feed parameters such as bar feed length, torque and drawbar back-off distance, a feature that avoids any contact between drawbar and bar during machining and eliminates consequential wear are simple, espec ially when 65mm bar is used.
In addition, the lathe's angular orientation can also be preset using the C-axis, for instance, to align the collet with non-round bar during a bar feed.
As the remaining bar length is also measured, a very helpful element is that the machine control is able to calculate how many pieces can be produced.
Once set up, the bar feed is called up as part of the Tornado's program simply by using an M code.
All the programs for the Tornado and bar feed, currently amounting to over 36, are developed and stored off-line and downloaded when needed via Neisen's factory-wide DNC link.
A feature of the Colchester MBF 1000 bar feed's design that proved particularly beneficial in machining the extruded oil pipe components is the seal at the back of the headstock.
Says Norman Griffin: "This prevents swarf and coolant, that could tend to run back along the flute channels of the extruded bar, from entering the headstock mechanism." The oil pipe parts were machined from two basic sizes of aluminium which are extruded into a six flute shape of 32mm and 40mm outside diameter.
The complete order consisted of 26 variants each in 100 batches produced from the two stock sizes with each part type differing in finished diameter, length and certain feature dimensions.
The smallest is just 3 mm long.
Qualifies Norman Griffin: "While the diameters are smaller than we normally run on the Tornado, this was more than offset by the productivity benefits gained from the lathe and bar feed package." Each part is machined almost complete in one setting on the Tornado with only a minor second operation being needed to finish the part.
This compares with the previous four separate operations when a smaller capacity auto was used.
The sequence of operations on the Tornado are; bar feed to length, face, turn outer flute diameter, centre, drill and tap, turn a spigot diameter on the back face and part-off.
The latter tasks are performed using the same carbide tipped parting tool that has a special sharp rake angle to enable a clean cut in the extruded aluminium shaped part.
The spindle of the Tornado is run at 5,000 revs/min for turning and facing with a 0.1mm/rev feed.
The respective conditions for turning the spigot and parting-off are 3,500 revs/min and 0.05mm/rev.
Finally, the part is completed on another machine by turning a taper on the spigot to form a point.
The overall cycle time to machine the oil pipe component is around 60 seconds which is 50 per cent faster than before.
"There has been a significant reduction in our reject and scrap since switching the task to the Tornado," remarks Norman Griffin, who follows on to explain: "Contributing to the quality is the lathe's rigid construction and the precision of the bar feed which overcomes a previous problem when the extruded flutes had a tendency to bend." Because chuck can hold the extruded bar on all six of its flutes, the set up is far more rigid.
While predominantly bar fed, the Tornado is also used to machine deep vee rollers for doors out of 200mm billets of stainless steel and a family of spiral staircase fabrications which weigh up to 11.5 kg.
These non bar fed parts are held in three and four jaw chucks as well as special fixtures which are mounted in the normal spindle collet of the lathe to give a quick changeover.
The spiral stair fabrication, which is some 200mm diameter, is then faced, drilled and bored, turned around, refaced to length and finished drilled to size.
Says Norman Griffin: "We really work this machine but it never lets us down." >From his experience with RK International Norman Griffin comments on the willingness to help and support them in the event of any problems.
"We have had the occasional question on programming and we have always been put through to a technical person who can both understand the problem and provide a solution.
Also, we have been very appreciative of RK's level of training which helped build our confidence very quickly and we certainly make use of what we learnt.".
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